The Art of Naming

We hear about common and popular names often. The social security administration's yearly baby name list came out a couple weeks ago for the US in the year 2015. Everybody loves to focus on the #1 names and the top 10. Quickly rising names are noted as ones to watch and quickly falling names get even more parents jumping overboard. What about all of the names that float under the radar? There are still plenty of great names beyond the Top 1000 list. These would be excellent choices for parents who want something more unique rather than something popular. The ones that I've handpicked from 2015's data are all very usable for a modern boy despite being uncommon at the moment. Welcome to my new series that features ten barely used names per month. We'll explore our way down the list and cover more and more uncommon names as we go. In the parenthesis, the number of births for 2015 is listed, followed by the rank. First up: Harris  (202 births - #1002)   Harris co...

From our new series, Darby is today's featured "-by" name. Darby is both a masculine and a feminine name. It originally comes from the name Derby which is an Old Norse name meaning "deer town". Derby is the name of a town in England which lent itself to becoming an English surname as well. That's where Darby comes from. There is an interesting proverbial phrase used by the British called "Darby and Joan" which refers to a married couple who are celebrated for their mutual devotion to one another. It is used to describe a couple that are content to share a quiet life together. This saying was first mentioned in print as a poem by Henry Woodfall in 1735 which featured John Darby and his wife Joan as the main characters. Another poet named St. John Honeywood wrote something similar as well shortly after. These two poems aren't the only mentions for Darby and Joan since it is a common phrase. As a name, Darby was first used in the US o...

We previously featured names that end with the letters -ay. Now we'll continue on to -by names in this new mini-series that dives into name endings. There is something so adorable about these names that end with the letters "-by". Many of these are unusual which is perfect for those seeking something special for their child. Take a look and see if you don't agree with me about their adorability factor: Girls: Abby Ashby Baby Catesby Colby Darby Debby Effaby Gabby Kelby Kirby Kolby Libby Maeby Quenby Ruby Shelby Tabby Interestingly, there are more -by names for boys than for girls: Boys: Alby Ashby Barnaby Bartleby Bixby Bobby Coby Colby Corby Crosby Darby Digby Gatsby Gibby Herby Jacoby Joby Kelby Kirby Koby Kolby Rigby Robby Roxby Saxby Selby Toby Willoughby Can you think of any more that could be added? Which are your favorites?! Be sure to view the rest of this series as it is published using the links ...

There could be a number of reasons why parents would opt for a hyphenated name. Maybe they have 3 or 4 favorites that they just cannot narrow down. Maybe they'd like to honor two people in one name. Maybe they just like how it sounds. Whatever their reasons, hyphenated names do get used quite often, even here in the US, it's just that none of them have managed to get enough births per year to rank all that high. I tried to avoid smoosh names, like -leighs and -annas and -lynnes, and only pull out the ones that are plausibly hyphenated. However, it is hard to tell since the SSA's data doesn't account for any hyphens and writes it all as one name. Perhaps the name could have been intended to be written as one, but most of these are most likely hyphenated, especially the longer ones. There could be some that were written with spaces. For example, I doubt that Mariadejesus is one word or hyphenated, but that's how it came up in the data. Perhaps they put Maria de Je...

Have you ever met someone with a double-barreled first name? Two first names strung together by a hyphen? It happens often enough to be a thing, but yet it is still somewhat rare depending on where you live. There could be a number of reasons why parents would opt for a hyphenated name. Perhaps they couldn't narrow down their favorites and decided to use them all. Perhaps they'd like to honor two people in one name. Or maybe they just like how the two names sound together. Hyphenated names do get used often, even here in the US, however none of them have managed to get enough births per year to rank all that high. The majority of the names on this list have less than 20 births per year. Since the SSA's data doesn't account for any hyphens and writes it all as one name, it is impossible to know how these names are truly intended to be written. Perhaps the name was meant to be written as one, or maybe the child received two first names rather than a first and a middle...

If you had a baby in the year 2015, you essentially cast your vote for the most popular names in the country.  And since another year has come and gone, we now get to dive into the latest baby name data! As you may know, the Social Security Administration rounds up the applications submitted for the year and they tally up how many names received how many births. It may not always be completely accurate, but it is very telling. It allows us to analyze which names are trending throughout the country. This is important for many parents who do not want their kids to be one of five Liams in a classroom. Some people try their best to avoid any name ranking within the Top 10, or Top 100 or even the Top 1000. Statistics are important, people. So which names were used the most in 2015? You can view the full Top 1000 names on this list here.   Do you have any favorites in the Top 10?

Princess Charlotte of Cambridge's first birthday is today, May 2, 2016. To celebrate, let's take a look at the names of female rulers of England and other Royal Princesses. While there have been many rulers of England in history , the vast majority of them have been male. However, some of the most influential rulers were the Queens, especially Queen Victoria and our current, long-reigning Queen Elizabeth II. Last week we took a look at the names of male rulers and their meanings and popularity over time. Now it is time to look at the women. Names of Queens of England: Mary: Mary comes from the Greek Mariam and Maria which were derived from the Hebrew Miryam . It's no secret that Mary (and Maria and Marie, etc) is by far the #1 name for women around the world. It ranked at either #1 or #2 in the US from 1880-1965. It wasn't until 2009 that it dropped out of the Top 100. As of 2014, Mary ranked at #120. It has been so well used that its starting to be a bi...